Reading program output from stdin

From: mpearo (mpearo_at_suffolk.lib.ny.us)
Date: 03/31/04 

Date: Wed, 31 Mar 2004 12:03:55 -0500

I have a program that calls ping. I would like to read the output back into
the calling program for further action. Any ideas and/or help would be
greatly appreciated.

Matt